When collecting information from a plurality of apparatuses by utilizing the Internet, an available communication band fluctuates largely when compared to a case where a dedicated line is utilized. If the communication environment deteriorates, the collected information cannot possibly be transmitted in time.
Under these circumstances, Patent Literature 1 discloses a method in which an administrative manager who supervises possible troubles of a plurality of computers collects logs from the computers. According to this prior art, the administrative manager sends the level of the logs to be collected to the computers in the same network, and the computers collect logs which are of the same level as or of a higher level than the level sent to the computers and send the collected logs to the administrative manager. In this case, the level of the logs is determined by the congestion degree of the network so that the amount of logs to be collected is adjusted.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a method in which a data collecting/recording device collects and accumulates data indicating the status of a management target system. According to this prior art, when the remaining recording capacity of the data collecting/recording device becomes equal to or lower than a predetermined criterion, the significance of data received from the management target system is determined, and the thinning-out interval is changed depending on the significance, thereby adjusting the amount of information to be collected.    Patent Literature 1: JP 2003-132019 A    Patent Literature 2: JP 2011-258064 A